Labyrinth’s Archivist (Book Secrets): Cordyceps II
Notes from my time writing “ The Labyrinth’s Archivist ” and fun tidbits.
Hopefully you read my first Cordyceps post
and so know what it is and how it was incorporated into The Labyrinth’s Archivist. Fun right? I was poking around and realized I am NOT the first person to consider using cordyceps in fiction.
Of course I wasn’t! It is just too awesome and terrifying for there NOT to be other Cordyceps-like creations out there. So…I thought I’d share a few.
1. X-Files. Season 2 Episode 9 (Firewalker) – Mulder and Scully, reunited at last, head for an active volcano under a geological study and find a deadly life form that can survive in the searing heat of the crater and is killing the scientists to avoid being discovered. (Yep, it is a silica-based lifeform that propagates similarly to Cordyceps.)
2. The Last of Us. 2013 Video Game. The Last of Us (2013) is now one of the most best-selling video games of all time. It involves characters trying to travel and survive in a post-apocalyptic United States. What was the apocalypse? It was a pandemic where 60% of the population was infected by mutated strain of the Cordyceps. (It looks like there’s currently a television adaptation in the works of The Last of Us for HBO).
3. Parasect. Pokemon Species . – Oh yeah, you read that right. There even is a cordyceps pokemon. Here is the information on Parasect from Bulbapedia:
Parasect is an orange, insectoid Pokémon that has been completely overtaken by the parasitic mushroom on its back. The insect body has been drained of nutrients and is now under the control of the fully-grown tochukaso. Removing the mushroom will cause Parasect to stop moving. It can thrive in dank forests with a suitable amount of humidity for growing fungi. Swarms of this Pokémon have been known to infest trees. The swarm will drain the tree of nutrients until it dies and will then move on to a new tree. It has been known to fight with Shiinotic over territory. Its former signature move is Spore.
